HIV Preventon: Zim Men Urged to Ma_sturbate to Reduce HIV

Muzarabani lawmaker, Honorable Alfred Mufunga says the country should consider ma_staburtion as a strategy to prevent HIV at a time the country is grappling with new HIV infections.

Contributing to a debate on HIV prevention strategies at a Parliamentarian workshop in Kwekwe on Wednesday, Honorable Mufunga said promiscuity was to blame for the new HIV infection cases, before urging men to ma_sturbate to quench their se_xual appetite.

“It’s high time we start promoting this method of self-satisfaction if we are to reduce HIV infections. Let’s say you are away from your partner and you feel the desire to have se_x, consider ma_sturbation than seeking the services of se_x workers. This can go a long way as we fight HIV,” he said.

Abstinence

Shamva South legislator, Hon Joseph Mapiki concurred with the lawmaker arguing that stakeholders should seriously consider this as a prevention strategy.

He is right, this will help in reducing HIV infections. It’s a method that we were taught back in the day. Gutu South Member of Parliament Hon Paul Chimedza, who is also a medical doctor, disagreed with the lawmakers arguing that he would not recommend ma_sturbation as a preventing strategy, positing that this had a psychological effect among other challenges.

“This method has several consequences, one tends to lose interest for women and it has other psychological effects so really we can’t recommend it as a prevention strategy. The debate on prevention strategies comes at a time when Zimbabwe, among other developing countries is grappling with rising new HIV infections.

In the wake of rising new HIV infections. The country is already working on prevention strategies, having recently hosted an expert meeting to fast-track HIV prevention implementation and to validate HIV prevention targets with 15 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region.

The meeting came as a follow-up after the signing of a new commitment by Ministers of Health in the ESA region on revitalization of prevention strategies during the 21st International Conference on AIDS, which took place in Durban, South Africa last year.

The new ESA commitment came after realizing that current HIV programming focused more on HIV treatment at the expense of prevention hence threatening the end AIDS target.

Although the number of new HIV infections in Zimbabwe declined from about 1, 4 percent in the 1990s to the current 0, 48 percent, Minister of Health and Child Care David Parirenyatwa bemoaned how Zimbabwe was still ranked among one of the high HIV burdened countries. T

he Health Minister said globally, the HIV prevention has also slowed down with the ESA region accounting for 46 percent of global new HIV infections in 2015. - H Metro